So Close: Membrey’s Air-Ball Sends Pies Packing From September

Three points. That’s it. Three points and one kick after the siren separated Collingwood from a home final and a long, cold summer of what-ifs.

Tim Membrey had it. Everyone at the ‘G had it. And then he didn’t have it, because the footy sailed through for a point that might as well have been a mile.

The kick that’ll haunt the off-season

Let’s not sugarcoat it. That’s the sorta shot you back yourself to kick nine times outta ten in the backyard with your little brother playing goalie.

But this wasn’t the backyard. This was the first ever wildcard game, MCG packed to the rafters, siren already gone, and a bloke with the weight of the whole Collingwood supporter base on his shoulders.

Did he rush it? Maybe. Did the Bulldogs defender get a hand somewhere near it? You could argue it. Did the whole ground hold its breath for that split second before the ball drifted left? Absolutely.

I’ve watched it back about ten times already and every time some tiny part of me reckons it’s gonna swing through. It never does. Footy’s cruel like that.

How did we even get here

Let’s rewind, because this game had everything before it had heartbreak.

The Pies led for large chunks of the last quarter. We looked like we’d done the job. Then the Dogs, being the Dogs, found another gear when it mattered and hit the front with barely enough time left for us to respond.

Which we nearly did. Nearly.

• Collingwood kicked more inside 50s for the game but couldn’t convert when it counted in the last term
• The midfield brigade was even for large stretches, with clearances a genuine arm wrestle all night
• Some soft high-half-forward turnovers cost us dearly in that final quarter

You don’t lose wildcard finals by three points because of one moment. You lose em because of fifteen small moments across four quarters. That miss was just the one that got replayed on every news bulletin in the country.

Umpires, and I’m just asking the question

Now I’m not one to carry on about the umpires personally, they’ve got a hard job and I wouldn’t do it for quids.

But there was a holding the ball call in the third quarter that had blokes in my row losing their minds. Free kick count finished lopsided too, and when you’re down by three at the death, every single one of those 50-50 calls matters.

Plenty of Pies fans reckon it looked soft all night. I’m not gonna sit here and say we got done over deliberately, because that’s not fair on anyone and it’s definately not what I believe. But gee, some of those decisions were generous to the Dogs at pointy moments.

Make of that what you will.

What this means for the club

Here’s the bit that actually matters once the sting wears off.

This was our first crack at the wildcard format, and we were IN it. One kick away from a home final against sides who’ll be happy to see the back of us in September. That’s not nothing.

The kids in this side, and there’s a few of em now, got a taste of genuine finals pressure at the MCG in front of eighty thousand-odd screaming supporters. You can’t buy that experience. It’ll pay off next year, or the year after, when it’s not Membrey standing over that kick but someone who’s been through this exact scenario before.

Are we happy about it right now? Course not. Ask me again in March and I reckon I’ll have a different answer.

Membrey deserves better than the pile-on

I already know what’s coming on the radio call-in shows and the socials. Membrey’s gonna cop it. He always does when a kick like that goes begging.

But let’s be honest with ourselves for a second. He put himself in position to win the game for Collingwood. He wanted the footy. A lot of players go missing in those moments, they duck the contest, they play it safe and pass it off to someone else.

Membrey wanted it. He just didn’t execute. That happens in footy, even to the best kicks of the footy going around. Wayne Carey missed sitters. Buddy’s missed sitters. It’s part of the game, as brutal as that is to accept three days after the fact.

He should of nailed it, sure. We all reckon that. But he shouldn’t cop abuse for backing himself when it mattered most.

Where to from here for the Pies faithful

So what do we take out of this one, apart from the sick feeling that’s gonna sit in our stomachs til pre-season?

We take that this list is closer than a lot of the experts reckoned coming into the wildcard round. We take that the kids stood up. We take that we were a genuine contest against a team that’s going deep in this thing, maybe all the way.

Does it hurt watching the Dogs roll on into the next week while we’re packing up the locker room? Course it does. That’s footy. That’s why we love it and hate it in the same breath.

Carn the Pies. We’ll be back next year angrier and hungrier than ever, and I reckon this loss, as brutal as it was, is exactly the sorta kick up the backside this list needed.

Three points. We’ll remember that number for a long, long time. But we’ll be back.